FUSE, a start-up business aiming to address the crisis of ACL injuries within women's football, has won the Ingenuity Impact Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Ingenuity Impact Showcase 2025.
Powered by the University of Nottingham, Ingenuity Impact is a programme that provides start-up skills training, networking and mentoring opportunities, and routes to funding for early-stage impact-driven businesses to make social, health and environmental change.
The most impactful ideas are awarded prizes and receive a share of £50,000 funding to help them in the early stages of their entrepreneurial journeys. Top prizes include Impact Entrepreneur of the Year, Health Champion, Climate Champion, Communities Champion, and University of Nottingham Champion.
Ingenuity Impact is designed to demystify entrepreneurship and support those not currently served by existing services available in Nottingham and in the UK's start-up landscape. This includes engaging with and supporting underserved and underrepresented groups both from within the university and its local communities. The programme provides flexible learning experiences to ensure that the support offered is accessible for all.
The Ingenuity Impact 2025 overall winner was Doris Greenwood from FUSE, she won the Ingenuity Impact Entrepreneur of the Year award, and Health Champion award for her business FUSE.
FUSE is a hormone analysis device that aims to address the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury epidemic occurring in women's football, as female players are up to eight times more likely to injure their ACL compared to their male counterparts. As hormonal fluctuations within menstrual cycles can impact the risk factor of ACL injuries occurring, the monitoring of these hormones can improve injury prevention protocols for these athletes.
Doris Greenwood, Impact Entrepreneur of the Year and Health Champion, said: "Ingenuity Impact has been an amazing experience with learning to pitch and getting the opportunity to network with new people, the funding is really going to help my business get off the ground."
The winners of Climate Champion was Ben Jones and Ed Donell with their business Lowland Meadows, which supports farmers in improving their sustainability while also assisting developers in securing planning permission through the use of Biodiversity Units.
Ingenuity Impact gave us the opportunity to pitch in front of a large, diverse audience and also gave us the opportunity to talk to businesses further along in their journey than us which gave us really valuable knowledge."
This year's winners of Communities Champion were Lita-Louise Gardner and Stephen Covell with their business Project EDI, an open-source initiative that aims to improve accessibility, accuracy, and ethics in AI tools for sign language, as communication barriers continue to impact the Deaf community worldwide. By developing inclusive technology that supports both signers and learners, the project seeks to empower the Deaf community and improve everyday communication.
Lita-Louise Gardner, Communities Champion, said: "Ingenuity Impact has helped me understand the importance of believing in myself, as well as seeing setbacks, not as setbacks but rather as areas of improvement. Professionally it has helped me take on feedback and use it constructively. Altogether I am more confident, and a stronger leader for my team."
The 2025 University of Nottingham Champion award was awarded to Monet Davis for her business FaceFlavour. FaceFlavour is a catering business that aims to bring cultural representation and inclusivity to corporate events, universities, and private dining experiences.
Monet Davis, University of Nottingham Champion, said: "The programme has been so transformative for FaceFlavour and for my own personal development, the support has been amazing."
The Ingenuity Impact team are so proud of our 2025 Changemakers and their commitment to making the world a better place. We've had such incredible businesses come through the programme this year, seeing their development and growth is truly something special. They should be so proud of themselves.
He added: "Thank you to our amazing participants, alumni, community and university partners, mentors, judges, contributors, Witty Scholar Volunteers and the rest of our brilliant Ingenuity Impact team."
To find out more about Ingenuity Impact and the 2025 Showcase, go to ingenuityimpact.org
